


Book of Memories

by HomesickAlien



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Happy Birthday, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:55:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25551658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomesickAlien/pseuds/HomesickAlien
Summary: Recounting a years worth of memories together.
Relationships: Camus | Erik/Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Book of Memories

**Author's Note:**

> I stole from the one draw theme again 💤 excuse me, but it was like my mind was being read, as I had thought to write something similar in the past but decidedly scrapped it. Consider it a trash fic and think nothing of it. 💤  
> I always assume time is moving as I play games. The hero’s “default,” is 16, but I have imagined lots of variations, same for everyone else. It’s usually a subconscious thing when Im writing it though lol I like everyone’s various points of views as always.

The Hero lays flat on his stomach, scratching his head with the dull end of a pen trying to collect his disorganized thoughts into words. He sees the image and hears the sounds of a harsh battle that still rings in his ears days after the fact, but trying to decipher the parts worth remembering, worth documenting… They easily slip away from him. 

It’s just like fishing, waiting for the catch to tug the line only to miss the pull. He wonders when it is he’s going to grasp something of value, his own value. He’s a hero in name only, the more one berates him as some evil force, or some fraction of inherent good, he feels the more he starts to lose his sense of self.

Just one year ago, he was simply a country boy of a small, isolated village, after all. _Just one year…_ Was it really…—?

“Hey!”

The bed bounces slightly as Erik sits on the edge, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to him after all this time, but still the Hero can never keep track of him. He’s such a strange person to read, but lots of people would say the same about the Hero, so he supposes that’s a commonality that’s brought them together in the first place. A push-and-shove kind of relationship where the two can encourage and balance one another. 

Erik is his support, and his weakness. There seems to be an inescapable distance between them, still. As partners, their time together is mostly spent side-by-side in battle. He wants to be able to spend more quiet time together, the way the girls do, but that is…

“What’s this? You’re always so focused on it, at camp and the inns, are you keeping a journal or something?”

The Hero covers his notebook with both his hands defensively, his head turned on its side to glare at Erik. It’s a little endearing, one might even call it cute— Erik can’t imagine the Hero the slightest bit threatening. Even in battle together, hands equally stained with sin, it would seem the Hero is a difficult kind of soft-hearted soul. He understands the suffering of others, and responds in earnest.

Well, maybe Erik’s just a little deluded by rose-tinted glasses. From the day they’d met, after all, Erik’s seen the Hero as the light of salvation, but right now, _partner_ does seem to be more fitting. 

“Are you embarrassed? There’s no secrets between partners, right?”

Erik’s a thief, and a cheater, and too self aware of it. Of the power of a single touch, or the Hero might be a little bit too easy, rolling over when Erik grasps his side. It’s way too easy in his momentary vulnerability for Erik to snatch the Hero’s notebook, and sit on top of him to keep him from struggling. 

It’s half-hearted at best, Erik is not the type to rely on pure strength the way the Hero does, and it wouldn’t take much to shift their position at all. It’s just more fun to play along. Someday, really, he was thinking it’d be nice to share the word of their travels together, when they’re all old and nostalgic and all, but he thinks after this moment in time he might be too embarrassed to get to that point in his life.

“You’re really boney.”

The Hero says, defeatedly, as if Erik is listening to him flipping around the pages, not really reading a word. 

“Heheh, your handwriting is surprisingly sloppy.”

The Hero sits up, scrutinizing his own work with Erik in his lap, his chin against Erik’s shoulder. This position isn’t really any more comfortable, but one he’s happy to stay in forever at the cost of his shame. Erik’s probably right in this case that no one could decipher the code that is the Hero’s scribbles well enough to really read his journal anyway. At times, even the Hero struggles to reflect on what he’s etched into its pages. 

It’s nothing but an in-the-moment documentation of their carefree days.

“Huh… It’s really been that long since we met.” 

“Please don’t read that part.”

The Hero remembers the true start of his journey all too well. The day he’d arrived in Heliodor, it’d seemed everything happened so fast, so truly indiscriminate of his feelings, and even as he best recalls the chaotic nature of their escape, the embarrassment stems from first meetings, and as such, a first encounter with the strange and mysterious notion of love. 

_Last night, I met a really strange person._

_I didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter, but there was something… very… (warm— nice— a——)_ The Hero sure has scribbled out a lot of words inbetween sentences. It adds to the illegibility of his writing, along with drawings he’s placed without all that much thought. Much like with speaking, sometimes it’s easier to express the thought in unconventional ways. It’s suited him well enough this long. 

_…This guy is very charismatic. Even though we'd met in a dungeon underground, I feel like I can trust him completely. Even enough to take a leap of faith off a cliff…?_

_Being a Hero is really amazing. I want to see the whole wide world together._

Perhaps it was too much, after all. His head is sizzling.

“Did you draw all this? That dragon is really spot on.”

Erik smiles widely, pointing it out on the pages, which makes it easy for the Hero to take it back in kind— “It was really difficult. I bet we could have defeated it if we really tried.”— The Hero reads out his own words aloud to stave off embarrassment. He even recalls the very bitter feeling he’d had at the time, running away from it like that. _Aren’t I a Hero? Surely, a dragon isn’t anything in comparison…_ He sure was full of himself then, still feeling just the same having to defend his name even now.

_I’m a Hero, aren’t I?_

“You’ve got too much confidence. Guess that’s the chosen one for you.”

“Aren’t you just following destiny yourself?”

The Hero retorts, skimming the pages without spending too much time focused on any particular moment in their journey. The first few pages are the most painful in reflection. They’d spent so much time together as a duo that it’s difficult to ignore his own slowly budding crush. The very mundane ways for which it manifests.

_This guy named Erik has a lot of hidden talents._

_I realized I haven’t eaten in a while, on the run from Heliodor knights and all, but at the camp this evening, Erik made something really delicious. Was it just delicious because I was hungry? Actually, I was thinking it would be nice if I could eat Erik’s cooking everyday, I’m not good at it at all. I’m glad we met._

“You have really low standards.”

“Do I?”

The Hero looks up genuinely confused by it; Food is important, it’s necessary for survival. Being with someone who can cook well is pretty vital, he thinks. Of course, he hadn’t really intended to confess the words of his journal outloud here, it just slipped out. Erik, as it would happen, is also an easy person to talk to, and the Hero is often letting down his guard around him. 

“I’m not even a good cook.”

“Compared to the rest of us, you could be a world class chef.”

“I think you guys are just a little sheltered.”

That’s not at all a lie. The Hero is the lucky one in this case, with a kind mother who’d always sort of spoiled him a little bit. More than she would probably admit to, anyway. Although the Hero can’t be certain, the way Veronica and Serena talk about their past, he imagines they’d shared a similar case. Sylvia is still an enigma, and as for Jade and Rab, well…

It’s best to leave these matters in Erik’s capable hands. Although the Hero thinks it would be nice if they could all learn together how to help with these sorts of domestic tasks, Erik’s a little controlling, to say the least. He’s oddly particular in ways he probably doesn’t realize, the Hero likes this a great deal about him. Maybe, subconsciously, he leans a little closer against Erik as he lazily turns another page.

There’s a particular word in this one, it catches his eye but not in a good way. Rather, just for a moment… 

_In the night, the four of us went to the circus to meet with the Prince of Gallopolis. He asked a strange favor of me, although it was for business, the show was very captivating. After we return the peace, I’d like to go many more times, (like a date?)_

He can feel the heat in his hands that might catch the pages on fire if he allows himself to waste the magic. The last few words are illegible, but the Hero remembers what he wrote regardless. _Like a date._ It’s too easy to write the words of their travels and never look back on them, never have to recall his own stupid thoughts. Right now, he’d like to return to traveling without even taking the time to rest. There’s gotta be lots of strong monsters out at night to train with, right.

“Hey, why’d your face get red all of a sudden? What’d you write?”

The Hero slams shut the notebook. 

“Nothing worth mentioning.”

Erik laughs, although he doesn’t push the Hero into talking about it, he does drape his arm over his shoulder, pulling him closer— “Say, didn’t you say you left your hometown on your sixteenth birthday.”

“It was a few days after.”

“Yeah, but it’s been a year since then right. Why didn’t you mention it?”

“My sixteenth birthday brought me nothing but trouble, so I thought I would keep the seventeenth a secret.”

It’s only a half truth. He doesn’t really have much complaints, being the Hero and all, it’s been nice getting to help put a smile on lots of people’s faces. To resolve everyone’s personal difficulties, Erik would complain often about the distractions, but the Hero likes to think he’s one who’s eager to lend a hand, as well.

Erik has that kind of image, a bad boy, a thief, a man he’d met in a dungeon and all, but in truth he has a naturally nurturing nature. 

“Besides…”

The hero runs his hand over the cover of his notebook. It’s starting to wear out quite a bit, but it’s still all put together after all this time. All the memories of such enigmatic times spent together with lots of friends… it’s something he’d never really imagined for himself. At least, not like this, but everytime he gets to recount a precious new memory… 

_Today is my birthday._

_I thought it would pass by uneventfully if I didn’t say anything, but in the evening, Sylvia pushed me into practicing her stage performance with her. I think it’d be really fun to be in the circus, but I’m not really cut out for all the acrobatics._

_I thought as much, but we’re a group who has fun together, after all._

_Erik used to call Sylvia noisy, but she’s really great for bringing people out of their shell. Like this, it’s easier to spend time together, there’s no possibility of being embarrassed with Sylvia whatsoever. There’s only room for one under the spotlight._

_Well, my heart was still racing, being so close to Erik, dancing together, laughing in each other's arms. But it was fun. It was really fun._

“If we can stay friends after this, I’d like to celebrate everyone’s birthday normally.” 

“You’re a real simple guy after all.”

“Were you expecting something more?”

They both laugh at that, loud and boisterous as ever when sharing a space together. The hero lays back, pulling Erik down with him. One whole year… Surely, there’s still a ways ahead for them before the journey ends. He can’t help but cherish every moment, even as the experiences stop being _new and exciting,_ even as he’s getting used to everyone’s quirks, and how big the world is… 

It’s the same feeling as back then, up on the Tor for the first time seeing the vast world together with his best friend. Not a single moment’s wasted between all of them, a happy group of idiots that fill in the empty space each one lacks. 

And even the ones that they’ve met, that aren’t traveling at their side. Maybe this is how his life would have been as a prince, keeping face around a bunch of stuffy royals all day. If there’s one thing he’d gotten right, it’s that being a _hero_ is truly special. 

_One more year…_ He wonders how many memories he’ll be able to fill in until then. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks, comment, have a good day and be safe. There’s no ending because I gave up 💤
> 
> If I end up doing this every week I will be too powerful, so please leave lots of comments telling me to shut up and get a job. (Abiding Quarantine.) (It’s a joke.)


End file.
